A review by ex_libris_volantes
The Road to Amazing by Brent Hartinger
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Mediocre finish to a series with a trope overdone for “everything that could go wrong, goes wrong at a wedding…”. Russel never gives me anything emotional throughout this entire series. I connected better with Geography Club because the coming out process and intense teen angst and desire for acceptance is highly relatable, but I don’t find any of this “after story” trilogy believable. Russel too often laments on what a struggle things are, only to be saved in the end by his eccentric friend who happens to have a lot of money, but no career or substance as a character other than being the same social outcast from high school. I mean yeah he has hobbies and obsessions, but Gunnar seems directionless, and only there to explain away how Russel is able to do all of these things and end up financially stable for a person who has pretty much never had a serious career so far in life. I’m not saying he should have his shit figured out, but it isn’t relatable to the majority of people, as most of us struggle to put our own dreams together, and don’t have a generous friend who apparently thinks $20K is chump change, and easy to part ways with…. That just doesn’t really happen in life, at least not often, and Russel just rolls with it like that is normal life.
The worst part is, I never believed in Russel and Kevin as a couple. This trilogy gave me no reason to understand the two of them coming back together, or why they work as a couple. Kevin loses all of his own agency just to basically become Russel’s pet-time working trophy husband by the end of this series, when at the start he was on a career path and in a steady relationship with another guy. The author also still has issues with being judgmental of people he deems “permissions, or over sexual outside monogamy.” It wasn’t as bad in this book as the blatant rant about the loveliness of se workers at the end of book two, but there was still an undercurrent of it throughout this book where Russel comments against promiscuity, but nervously explains away that fantasizing about sex with other people is fine as long as you stay with your one partner like his “perfect relationship…” he called his relationship perfect so many times it felt like I was being forced to accept that as fact, with nothing again to back it up. One time we finally get a little bit of emotional backstory when Kevin opens up about his insecurities and desire to fit in back when he transferred into school and met Russel in 7th grade, and how even then he “noticed Russel,” and felt a kinship to him…. But none of their actual on page experiences in these three books make them feel authentic to me.
The story writing is overall not bad, but because the characters gain no depth throughout, it falls low in my ratings. Plot with no character attachment just doesn’t do it for me.
The worst part is, I never believed in Russel and Kevin as a couple. This trilogy gave me no reason to understand the two of them coming back together, or why they work as a couple. Kevin loses all of his own agency just to basically become Russel’s pet-time working trophy husband by the end of this series, when at the start he was on a career path and in a steady relationship with another guy. The author also still has issues with being judgmental of people he deems “permissions, or over sexual outside monogamy.” It wasn’t as bad in this book as the blatant rant about the loveliness of se workers at the end of book two, but there was still an undercurrent of it throughout this book where Russel comments against promiscuity, but nervously explains away that fantasizing about sex with other people is fine as long as you stay with your one partner like his “perfect relationship…” he called his relationship perfect so many times it felt like I was being forced to accept that as fact, with nothing again to back it up. One time we finally get a little bit of emotional backstory when Kevin opens up about his insecurities and desire to fit in back when he transferred into school and met Russel in 7th grade, and how even then he “noticed Russel,” and felt a kinship to him…. But none of their actual on page experiences in these three books make them feel authentic to me.
The story writing is overall not bad, but because the characters gain no depth throughout, it falls low in my ratings. Plot with no character attachment just doesn’t do it for me.